Draft PPS14 Sustainable Development in the CountrysidePolicy CTY 12

Planning permission will be refused for a building which creates or adds to a ribbon of development.

An exception will be permitted for the development of a small gap site sufficient only to accommodate one house within an otherwise substantial and continuously built up frontage.

Justification & Amplification

4.98 Ribbon development is detrimental to the character, appearance and amenity of the countryside. It creates and reinforces a built-up appearance to roads, footpaths and private laneways and can sterilise back-land, often hampering the planned expansion of settlements. It can also make access to farmland difficult and cause road safety problems. Ribbon development has consistently been opposed and will continue to be unacceptable.

4.99 For the purposes of this policy ribbon development is a line of buildings extending along a road, footpath or private lane generally without accompanying development of the land to the rear. A ‘ribbon’ does not necessarily have to be served by individual accesses nor have a continuous or uniform building line. Buildings sited back, staggered or at angles and with gaps between them can still represent ribbon development, if they have a common frontage or they are visually linked.

4.100 Ribboning is not a category of development that can easily be defined by numbers. However, for the purposes of this policy two dwellings sited adjacent to one another with a common frontage and without significant existing boundary vegetation between them will be viewed as ribbon development.

4.101 Most frontages in the countryside have gaps between houses or other buildings that provide relief and visual breaks in the developed appearance of the locality and that help maintain rural character. The infilling of these gaps in the countryside will therefore not be permitted except where it comprises the development of a small gap, (generally no more than 20 metres in width), sufficient only to accommodate one house within an otherwise substantial and continuously built up frontage.

4.102 In such circumstances, the proposed dwelling will have to be well designed, appropriate in size and form to neighbouring buildings and meet other planning and environmental requirements.